Retiring Intel CEO Discusses Biggest Regret - Choosing to Not Power the iPhone

As Paul Otellini retires from his post as the chief executive of Intel, he reveals in an in-depth profile that he ultimately passed on a contract to build the silicon which powered Apple’s original iPhone, a decision that he regrets given the handset’s wild success. In an interview with The Atlantic, Otellini said the following about his company’s chance to be an integral part of Apple’s iPhone project:

We ended up not winning it or passing on it, depending on how you want to view it. And the world would have been a lot different if we'd done it.

Apple ended up going with the Samsung-built ARM system-on-chip design for the first iPhone and subsequently relied on the architecture for its entire iOS device lineup. The Cupertino California company introduced its first in-house designed ARMv7 core with the A6 SoC used in the latest iPhone 5. Otellini went on to say the following:

The thing you have to remember is that this was before the iPhone was introduced and no one knew what the iPhone would do. At the end of the day, there was a chip that they were interested in that they wanted to pay a certain price for and not a nickel more and that price was below our forecasted cost. I couldn't see it. It wasn't one of these things you can make up on volume. And in hindsight, the forecasted cost was wrong and the volume was 100x what anyone thought.

Apple ended up turning to Samsung with Intel out of the game for its chip making needs. The South Korean manufacturer’s fabrication facilities are still used to churn out Apple’s A-series processors, although the partnership may soon end as tensions between the two companies reach a breaking point. Samsung has still greatly benefitted from the lucrative Apple contract for the past six years, a position that Intel likely envies. Otellini closed by saying the following about his regretful decision:

The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I've ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut. My gut told me to say yes.

LOL. If rumors are true we won't have to with iOS 7, looking like WP...I really hope this is nothing more than a rumor. I hate the WP UI with a passion. It truly is the ugliest UI I've seen since Windows ME days.